Rep Jackie Speier (D-Calif) did something today that deserves a Bark call-out for a job well-done. It was reported in the SF Chronicle that she “ripped” into the National Park Service for using a Taser on a man who was running with his small dogs off-leash. When he was confronted by a ranger about the leash policy (which had been newly created in that area), he, allegedly, was uncooperative and...

In her thoughtful and provocative new book, Call of the Mild: Learning to Hunt My Own Dinner, Lily Raff McCaulou— raised as a gun-fearing environmentalist and animal lover—meditates on the ways her perspectives on hunting and her place in the natural world have changed. We talk with her about her experiences, and her non-hunting fishing dog, Sylvia.
Bark: You contributed the endpiece for this...

Recently we got the sad news that a friend from the dog park had passed away suddenly. She was on a backpacking trip in the Sierra mountains with a group of friends when she had a heart attack, a few hours later she died at a friend’s home. It is all so horribly sad! Luckily her two dogs were not with her; they were being cared for by another friend/dogsitter back in Berkeley. Unfortunately Carol...

Humans aren’t the only ones to suffer from eating disorders, heart disease, addictions and many other ailments. In Zoobiquity, cardiologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and journalist Kathryn Bowers examine the range of diseases and conditions that commonly afflict both people and other animals, including dogs.
Horowitz’s revelation that species-spanning commonalities exist was sparked when she...

When journalist Kim Kavin decided to adopt an adorable pup on Petfinder.com, she didn’t realize that her good deed would lead to a book exposing shelter practices as well as reporting on the amazing canine rescue network responsible for saving that pup. We talk with the author about her book, Little Boy Blue: A puppy’s rescue from death row and his owner’s journey for truth about what she learned...

Nicholas Kristof, of the New York Times, writes an intriguing column today about novel public health efforts to help mitigate the harm of guns in our society. In his column he cites the work done by David Hemenway of the Harvard School of Public Health, who has studied just that, the public health approaches to firearms. He talks about changing societal norms that this will require. Hemenway has...

July 17, marks the anniversary of the 1959 death of Billie Holiday. Her life was a hard one: a childhood of bitter poverty and early sexual abuse; an acute sensitivity to the all-pervasive racism of her time; a series of difficult relationships with controlling, exploitative men; an eventual downward spiral of depression, addiction and broken health. Among the things that gave her joy and an...

There’s a great story about an improbable dog adoption on the front page of the Los Angeles Times today. Not only it is heartwarming and uplifting but informative (about the rescue scene in LA) too. The story is about how its reporter, Rene Lynch, adopted an older, abandoned German Shepherd who, as the story begins:
was found “lashed to a fence inside an abandoned junkyard. With no food and water...

It was the 113th birthday of E.B. White yesterday (July 11). His diverse work—spanning the likes of childhood favorites, Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, to the writers’ essential, The Elements of Style—have long enthralled and elucidated readers. His love of dogs, and the quotes his observations spawned, have become memorable and can be found in strange places like in defining rather obtuse...

Jennifer Arnold believes in dogs, and that the opportunity to engage in relationships with them is a gift. In order to realize the full potential of that gift, she asks a crucial question: “What do dogs want and need … and why does it behoove us to give it to them?” She then proceeds to answer it with chapters on canine health, safety, training and bonding, among other topics. Like her first book...